In Brief
The appellants, a husband and wife claiming to be tantric priests, kidnapped and murdered a six-year-old girl named Manisha in 2010 as a human sacrifice to gain mystical powers. Her skeletal remains were found buried in their house alongside those of another murdered child. The trial court convicted them of murder, kidnapping, and evidence tampering, imposing the death sentence. The High Court confirmed conviction but reduced the sentence to life imprisonment without remission or parole. The Supreme Court upheld the life sentence for murder and evidence tampering, confirming this as a 'rarest of rare' case, but acquitted them of kidnapping due to insufficient evidence beyond confessions. The appellants' prior conviction for a similar murder was cited as an aggravating factor."
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